Motivated by some nostalgia for the original Jurassic Park and a big appreciation for its music, I joined millions of others who flocked to see Jurassic World over the weekend. I walked away entertained and reminded of the best and worst aspects of this series.
Plot summary
According to IMDB, Jurassic World’s plot is: “Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor’s interest, which backfires horribly.”
Positive elements
If you are a fan at all of Jurassic Park, you will most likely enjoy Jurassic World. There are multiple references to the first, from the animated Talking DNA strand who says “Dino-DNA,” to the classic Jeep Wrangler and more, the references to the original movie seemed to delight movie goers.
The plot is far-fetched and, though the body count in the movie is disturbingly high, the depictions of violence were not as graphic as they could have been. The acting in the movie was believable, including from stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, as well as the children. The computer-generated graphics were well done too, with many of the dinosaurs looking realistic (though some looked fake).
Negative elements
I did not take my children to see this movie, but many people did. For those people, I am embarrassed because of the bad language throughout the movie. Jurassic World could have been just as good without all of the bad language. Secondly, the movie tries to forward a romance between Pratt and Howard that does not work or move at a deep, lasting level. Perhaps most significant, the movie continues to prop up the theory of evolution as settled fact. We can debate the age of the earth all we want, but as Christians, we stand athwart atheistic evolution and the evolutionary worldview.
Spiritual content
Jurassic World assumes the theory of evolution as fact; on a positive note, it does portray negatively science that is not grounded in morals or that does not consider morals. Recall Jeff Goldblum saying in the original, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. While there is no specific mention of God in Jurassic World, there is a depiction of “good guys” and “bad guys.” There also is a concern for the well-being of animals and not just using them cruelly.
Overall
As a Christian, I believe God created dinosaurs and that God made mankind to have dominion over the earth, not dinosaurs to rule the earth. So this movie probably does more harm than good, in considering the great questions of origin and morals. But it did provide a helpful reminder that nature, or better yet creation, is not something than can easily be controlled. If you saw Jurassic World or plan to, use it as a springboard to talk about God and the book of Genesis. For if we have a chance to talk about who God made us to be, and His redemptive plan for mankind, then we all can be glad a movie like this was made.
Rating
2.75 stars (out of 4)
(Photo courtesy of JurassicWorldMovie.com.)